241 This & That

This & That*

*Or topics I could not stretch out for an entire blog & I am sure you will be happy I didn't!




On Science Friday (one of my favorite NPR shows) a week ago, I heard about another "hidden figure." Alice Bath, an African-American chemist, discovered a treatment for leprosy in 1914 or 1915. She died soon after and others took credit for her research. It wasn't until the 1970s that she received recognition for her work. 

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Just suppose someone put a baggie (that happened to be in the pocket of that someone's jeans) of hot tamale cinnamon candy in the wash. 

Who would guess that the candy pieces would come out of the dryer intact except completely devoid of their bright red color? And no red on any other clothes!

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As I continue my research on Judge Parker, I find many obscure individuals whose names show up in documents I am transcribing. I am amazed at how many I can identify using the web. This line about the rental of the slave Webb was in Parker's account book:

Feb 8, 1847 

Snickerville—recs from Moore & Luke $65, hire of Webb for last year

No first names. Were these last names? I searched for the words snickerville, moore and luke in Google and found something!

Google Books has the text of History of the Lower Shenandoah Valley Counties of Frederick, Berkeley, Jefferson and Clarke, 1890 by Norris, available online. From this information, I was able to go to Ancestry and Find A Grave, to fully identify these two men. Remarkable!

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I have stopped looking up each disease I may have or treatment I may need when Facebook prompts me to "click to see the symptoms, etc."

I clicked because I was curious about what disease ZTL (or whatever) is. Now I am overwhelmed with human and canine diseases and treatments:
chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Joubert Syndrome, MBC, for example. Or should I try lapiplasty bunion correction? What is robotic pancreas surgery? Is that freckle melanoma? Facebook has a much wider variety of diseases and treatments than television. No more clicking for me!

There you have it--chemistry, history, medicine AND HOT TAMALES!

Trish